A Girl's Best Friend
by oursolemnhour49
Summary: Korra tells Mako about how she came to have a polar bear-dog for a pet- and a best friend. Five part fic; Korra/Mako. Takes place after the end of season 1, but no major spoilers.
1. Chapter 1

**This is a birthday fic, written for a friend (*cough*that's a month late*cough*)- so happy birthday, Maria. And to anyone else who happens to stumble across this- enjoy!**

**I do not own _The Legend of Korra_.**

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Rapid splattering footsteps sounded outside the gate of the enclosed compound, echoing off the ice walls into the dark sky. Anyone unfamiliar with the sound could have been forgiven for being unnerved by the approaching footsteps, but the girl standing in the middle of the compound merely glared up at the moon. "Not again," she groaned, and folded her arms. Her bright blue eyes focused on the gate. For a moment or two she stood still, listening as the footsteps drew nearer. The heels of her tanned boots dug into the thin layer of snow, and she grimaced.

The footsteps grew louder and then skidded to a halt. For a second or two there was silence, and then a high-pitched whine issued from behind the gate. The girl in the courtyard tried to frown, but the scowl on her face only lasted for a few seconds before transforming into a smile. "All right, all right!" she called. "Give me a second, girl."

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes before springing lightly into the air. As she spun several feet above ground, her arms moved gracefully to match the slight breeze that had swept out of the night. At last, far later than the laws of gravity demanded, she dropped to the ground and thrust her hands at the gates. They blew outwards with a loud thud, and a white polar bear-dog bounded inside. The creature's thick fur was very damp and a dead fish was clutched in its jaws. Tail wagging, it raced up to the girl, dropped the fish at her feet, and began to enthusiastically slobber over her dark face and hair.

"Naga! Cut it out, you silly- gah!" The girl gagged and spat several times into the snow. "You had to give me a huge drooling kiss when my mouth was open, didn't you," she said sourly. "I should be giving you a long bath right now for that. With that scented bubble stuff you hate so much."

Naga gave a melancholy whimper, and the girl laughed softly, reaching out to scratch one of the polar bear-dog's damp ears. As she did so a rectangle of gold light spilled out onto the ice some distance away. From the door in the house which caused the light came laughter and the sound of voices chattering. The girl looked up as a tall shadow appeared in the door. It hesitated a moment before stepping out into the courtyard and materializing into a boy clad in a patchwork outfit of borrowed coats and boots from various guards. His bright red scarf stood out from the drab blues that colored the rest of his winter clothing. "Korra?" he called. "Is that Naga? She came back?"

"Of course she came back," the girl replied airily. "You always come back, don't you, girl? You take off exploring, but you always come back slobbering for dinner." She kicked the fish that still lay at the animal's feet. "Or bring dinner back with you- which, might I add, is more than a certain someone has ever done for me."

The boy joined Korra by the polar bear-dog. "Clearly I've hit a new low if my girlfriend ranks her polar bear-dog higher than me."

Korra shrugged. "Sorry, pal. You've done pretty well, but you've yet to make me a dinner."

"I did, just last week."

"If by 'I' you mean 'Katara, the master water healer and cook made dinner which I then served', then maybe I'll buy that. Trust me, I've had enough of her cooking to know what her food tastes like." Korra laughed suddenly. "Also I'm pretty sure you've never done any cooking more complex than reheating something. Which would be a great scoop for the sporting tabloids. I can see the headlines: Pro-Bender Mako of the Fabulous Fire Ferrets Can Only Cook Opponents!"

Mako's large eyebrows wrinkled. "You sound just like the broadcaster when you talk that way."

Korra kissed him lightly on the cheek and leaned on his shoulder casually. "So should I take up that career? It'd be fun, I can deliver live broadcasts as the Avatar. I wonder if that would go over well with people?" She pondered that for a moment or two, then shook her head. "Nah, Tenzin would have a heart attack, and I think I've given him a few too many over the past year."

"You didn't give him all of them," Mako pointed out. "He had a few other reasons for heart trouble besides you."

"Tell me about it. But spirits know I didn't help. There are a lot of people I could have done better with, thinking about it." Rather pensively, she rubbed Naga's head. "At least I didn't screw anything up with you, girl," she murmured, half to herself.

Taking Mako's hand in her right and holding Naga with her left, Korra led the way across the courtyard to the house and adjoining shed where the polar bear-dog usually slept. As the animal curled up on a heap of straw, Korra and Mako shut the doors on a faint snowfall that was rapidly growing. Shivering, they both curled up against what dry bits of Naga they could find.

After a quick kiss or two, they were both quiet, staring up at the ceiling. At last Mako stirred and propped himself up on one elbow. "You said back in Republic City that Naga was your best friend."

The polar bear-dog stirred slightly at hearing her name, and Korra stroked her pet's neck soothingly. "She is. You want to know why?"

Mako nodded and Korra sat up to clasp her knees to her chest. Her hair was falling from its pigtails, framing her dark face and delicate jaw. The look in her eyes was pensive. After another fragment of silence, she spoke up quietly. "If not for Naga- I think I would have become like Tarrlok. I think I would have gotten so drunk on my own power that I wouldn't have cared what other people thought or needed, and I would have done whatever I wanted."

"You've got to be kidding," the boy said after a moment. "Korra, I know you, and you're nothing like that bastard. You're always willing to help whoever might need it, and I can't see you ever being a bully or taking advantage of people. That's just not you."

Korra laughed softly. "Trust me, you wouldn't have said that if you'd seen me at twelve. I blasted two of the White Lotus guards sky-high for not letting me move on to some more advanced firebending techniques, and when Katara tried to get me to calm down, I pitched a fit and earthbent her pottery collection into dust. And when I got punished for it by not being allowed to bend for a week, I decided I'd had enough and ran away…"


	2. Chapter 2

**I do not own _The Legend of Korra_.**

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"I didn't think it through very well, which won't surprise you. I was mad, and I was ready to prove that no matter what anyone told me, I was the Avatar and so I could do anything I wanted to with bending. So I decided to do that by running off with a huge sack of seal jerky and all the sugar cakes in the kitchen. I was going to find a new teacher if it killed me, I remember shouting at Katara's bedroom door. And it nearly did. Kill me, I mean.

"I will say one thing for my runaway plans- I made sure no one would see me leaving. I used earthbending to sneak out under the walls. That was horrible, since the ground was almost frozen, but I was too mad to care. So I climbed up the nearest ice mound, slid down the opposite side into the valley and kept walking until I hit this huge patch of smooth ice that was almost like a road.

"It was going vaguely north, which was the direction I wanted, so I kept following the ice. It gradually turned rougher and rougher, with all these slabs of ice sticking out at odd intervals. Some of them were three or four times as tall as I was, and I kept stumbling around and halfway falling in between the cracks in the ice slabs. Sometimes there were these weird groans and shrieking sounds as the ice fell apart or scraped against another slab.

"I don't remember how long I'd been walking before it finally clicked that I was on a glacier, but when I did realize it, I panicked. You being a city boy, you probably wouldn't know about how dangerous glaciers can be, but they're really unpredictable, especially on the surface. The ice cracks easily, sometimes right under your feet, and there are crevasses everywhere that sometimes get covered by thin ice. If you step on it the wrong way, the slab will tip and slide you into the crack. Then the glacier moves and you're slowly crushed to death. At least that's what parents tell their kids when the kids see the glacier and want to go play on it. And while it's not always that dangerous, those things that parents tell their kids about have happened before.

"I'd had my parents warn me about glaciers before the Order of the White Lotus took me to Katara. So when I realized that was on one, I freaked out. And then I had a brilliant idea- if I could go all the way up the surface of the glacier to wherever it ended, it'd prove I was tough enough to learn new firebending moves.

"Don't even ask me how that was supposed to work, but I wasn't thinking too clearly and at the time it seemed like a great idea. So I kept going up the glacier, using firebending to melt some of the slabs and waterbending to freeze them into place, like a road. It worked pretty well, and I was really proud of myself- until night fell.

"That was when things got really bad. I couldn't see what I was doing, or where I was going, and then the glacier ended. I was on one of the plains, where there's rocks in the very far distance, all in a ring around the open space. But with the wind and the snow that had just fallen, I couldn't see very well. I got completely lost, and tried to warm myself with firebending.

"It didn't go very well- I actually ended up setting my coat on fire. I dropped my pack and tore it off as quickly as I could and doused it with water. But it took me so long to get the pack off that the right sleeve and side seam of the coat were completely burned. By that point it was completely dark and a snowstorm was coming down pretty hard. I should have thought to waterbend the stuff out of my coat, but it didn't occur to me at the time. All I could think was that I'd failed at getting a teacher, and I got so mad I started crying.

"When I looked up, a giant polar bear-dog was standing a few feet away."

* * *

Mako glanced Naga, against whom he had been leaning, with a new respect. "That was you, wasn't it?" he said enthusiastically. "Korra was about to freeze to death and you took her back to your den to keep her warm."

The animal gave a high pitched whine as he rubbed her neck. Korra watched the pair of them with a rather sad smile on her face. "Wrong," she said quietly. That polar bear-dog wasn't Naga. And she wasn't about to save me. When I saw her, I freaked out all over again."

The look of surprise on Mako's face was almost comical. "But why? Polar bear-dogs are really friendly, right?"

Korra snorted. "Domesticated ones, maybe. And even they get pretty territorial. But this one was wild and it was mad. I'd gotten too near her den, and she was going to protect it at any cost. Next thing I knew she was growling at me, all the fur on her neck sticking up and her teeth bared. That was when I got scared, rather than mad. That thing was bigger than Naga is now, or at least she looked that way to the dumpy little kid she was snarling at. I couldn't even cry at that point- I think I was just holding my breath."

Mako sat up, looking at her intently as though struggling to imagine the fearless and forthright girl beside him as a frightened child. "So what did you do?"

Korra stood and stretched. "I fought it. What else would I have done?"

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**Just a word- I know that Korra wouldn't normally talk the way she does here, but it's a story with her telling it, so it has to a bit more descriptive than how she would usually speak. Hopefully it doesn't sound too flowery for her.  
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**Thanks for reading!  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**I do not own _The Legend of Korra_.**

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"You probably wouldn't guess it to look at Naga, but polar bear-dogs are some of the nastiest animals we have out here. In fact, they're probably the only things we have- apart from some of the nastier underwater things- that actually will kill people and attack outlying homes. This one wasn't the biggest I'd ever seen, but I'd only seen them from a distance and as rugs- they're a lot bigger up close and alive.

"Anyway, this thing began to snarl and circle me. I kept turning to face it and kept looking it in the eye, which looking back was the stupidest thing I could have done because animals- especially the predatory ones- will see that as a challenge. After some time spent turning around in a circle, trying to keep the thing in my sight, I slipped and one of my legs just went out from under me.

"The polar bear-dog sprang at me, and I was barely able to roll away from the teeth- it could easily have snapped my hand off, if it had gotten hold of me. As it was, it grabbed my shoulder. I still have the scars- but you don't get to see them tonight, sorry. Anyway, I was able to waterbend some melted snow into its face. I'd made it as pointed as I could, and I got it right in the eye. It rolled off me and started batting at its head, shaking and whimpering. From the way it was acting I think I actually might have pierced the eye, though at the time I couldn't tell. I was freaking out, and my shoulder was practically torn to shreds.

"Anyway, I hit it with a blast of firebending, and I threw everything I had into it. Given that I was freaking out and really keyed up, it came out a lot stronger than I had originally intended. The polar bear dog backed off for a bit, but as soon as I stopped firing, it came back madder than ever. I jumped up, went to the side, and waterbent some flat ice in front of the polar bear-dog. It went sliding past me and went headfirst into a nearby rock.

"At that point, I had it beat, I think. If I'd given it a chance, it probably would have run off and left me alone. But it turned back to snarl at me- perhaps because I was hurt and it could smell the blood. If I'd been thinking more clearly, I probably wouldn't have done what I did. But like I said- I was freaking out. Anyway I melted the ice I'd made and just hammered the thing with all the power I had. I kept blasting it with what was practically a spear of ice. And at some point, I realized it had collapsed. When I came closer, it was dead.

"I just dropped on my knees in front of the body. For quite a few minutes it just didn't sink in that I could have been killed- I was too stunned to think clearly. It wasn't until I almost fell asleep that I realized I was in some serious trouble. My coat was soaked, my shoulder was a bloody mess, and I was in the middle of nowhere with no one about to come after me any time soon. But the only clear thought in my mind was that if I fell asleep, I'd freeze to death. You learn that fast in the South Pole.

"Anyway I got up and went toward the cliffs that were all around me. I knew the polar bear-dog had to have some kind of den, and I was just sort of counting on the fact that it wouldn't be up in the mountains. All I could think was that if I found the thing's den, I could sleep there without freezing too badly. Shows how much I knew, of course, but I got lucky. I found a cave behind a big slab of rock that looked like it slid partway down the rock face.

"And inside that cave, I found a polar bear-dog- or rather a polar bear-puppy. I practically fell into the cave, and it woke up from where it had been sleeping- which was in the back of the den. I wasn't sure what to do, so I walked up to it. It blinked once or twice, whimpered, and then sank its teeth into my hand.

"_That_ was how I first met Naga."

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Mako stared at Korra, who was leaning against the door frame of Naga's compound. "That was how you first met Naga?"

"Yeah. Not what you expected, is it?" She smiled rather sadly. "It's kind of depressing. I killed her mother, who almost gnawed off my arm."

For a moment there was silence. Korra looked out at the courtyard, where the snow was falling with increased frequency. Mako stood and put a hand on her shoulder, and she leaned back against him without speaking. Then she took his hand, and they began to walk back to the house.

Mako coughed after a moment. "So what happened after you came across Naga in the cave? How'd you get back?"

Korra smiled. "Oh, I didn't. I holed up in the cave, spent most of the night crying, and was found in the very early morning. I didn't cover my tracks as well as I'd thought, which was lucky since I probably would have died within a day or so."

"And so Katara and the rest let you take Naga with you?"

"Oh, no. They made me take her back with me. To tell the truth, I wasn't very happy about it. In fact I was within inches of pitching another fit."

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**This whole story is meant to be rather brief, but this chapter is short even by those standards, so I apologize for that. Thank you to everyone reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

**I do not own _The Legend of Korra_.**

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"Basically the last thing I wanted was responsibility. Not that I would have put it that way to anyone who asked me- my constant excuse the whole time back was that I had to learn how to be the Avatar and that I didn't have time to take care of a polar bear-dog. But when I got back, all that Katara told me was that since the polar bear-dog's mother wouldn't have died if I hadn't been out there, I had to take care of her now.

"So I did. There were other punishments too, of course- the head of the White Lotus made sure of that, but that was what Katara wanted me to do for running away, was take care of Naga.

"For a long time, I just did the basics. Feeding and watering, and occasionally walking her. I went on like that for a few weeks or so, working on my bending, taking care of the polar bear-dog, and sulking in every spare minute. I couldn't stand anyone in the compound, I didn't want to talk with anyone, and kept telling myself that they'd had no right to take me back, that if I wanted to leave, they should have let me.

"I was sulking about one day, and walking around the outside of the compound, bending some of the earth up and telling myself that I was going to find another way out. But I wasn't actually going to do anything. I was glaring up at the wall at the wall, trying not to scream, and that's when I heard something whimpering. I looked over at the gate and saw the polar bear-puppy whimpering and scratching at the gate.

"That was weird to me, since every single time I'd gone to feed the puppy before, it had just tried to bite me, and I'd been glad to get away from it. I walked up to the gate, and for whatever reason there weren't any guards around. So I opened the little door in the gate itself that let the guards come through without hauling the entire thing open, and let it out.

"Looking back I'm not really sure why I did that. Don't get me wrong, I didn't want to get rid of her or anything- that honestly didn't enter my mind. I think I just wanted to see what she would do- what something would do if it was given the chance to get out and go wherever it wanted.

"The polar bear-puppy ran out some distance away from the compound, out along the path that led away from the gate and then stopped. It stood in the road, looking around like it was lost. Then it turned around and around, put its nose to the ground and ran off a few steps before stopping and coming back to where it had started. After a minute or two it put its nose to the ground again and ran off. Then it came back again and turned around and around. Then it sat down on the road and began to howl.

"I was terrified. The guards had probably just ducked into the house to get lunch, but I didn't know when they'd be back, and I was afraid they'd think I was hitting the dog or being mean to it or something. Most of them knew how much I didn't like the puppy, but I'd never done anything to hurt it- I'd never done anything to it other than shove it off when it bit me. But since I complained about it so much, I was afraid the thing's howling would get me in trouble.

"So I went up to the puppy really slowly and tried to come up with some way to keep it quiet. It didn't try to bite me, which was great. So I began to pet it, trying to get it to quiet down. But when I tried to pick it up to get it back to the compound, it shied away and began crying all over again. I didn't know what do. I was tempted to just storm off and leave it there- I did raise my voice to it a bit, but it didn't do any good. When I turned back to the compound, Katara was there watching me.

"She asked me if I'd named her yet. I hadn't even realized the puppy was a girl, so of course I hadn't, and Katara told me that I should. She said that it always makes things easier with animals if you have a name to call them by. I said that sounded silly, but I didn't scowl, and I actually took some time to think about it. Later that day, I came up with the name Naga- it was the name of some obscure historical figure of the Southern Water Tribe; and actually a guy's name, but I didn't realize that till later. But I decided on Naga and called her by that name. And she did actually look up at me for a few seconds before lying back down again. I started petting her again, and this time, she let me pick her up. So I carried her back inside, trying not to look at Katara. For some reason I felt embarrassed.

"The next problem I had was getting Naga to realize that, yes, that was her name."

* * *

Mako laughed. "So you had to train her? That couldn't have been too hard, right? She's pretty smart."

Korra smiled and rubbed Naga's head affectionately. "Yeah, and she was also stubborn."

"I wonder where that could have come from."

"I wondered that- hey!" A well-aimed punch to Mako's shoulder sent him stumbling.


	5. Chapter 5

**I do not own _The Legend of Korra_.**

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"I'm not exactly patient and I had a really hard time trying to get Naga to understand that when I said 'Naga, come' that she should come to see me. Oh- hey, girl. I wasn't actually calling you… oh, never mind. Anyway I did the usual tricks- bribing her with treats, and she'd definitely come for those, but as she got older, I could tell she knew she was supposed to come and just wouldn't. She would act like she wanted me to chase her down and tackle her, or something.

"At first that drove me crazy, but as time went by I got used to actually going after her and playing with her. And once that happened- she started listening to me a lot more. She'd come when I called, catch a ball, or let me wash her, which is no easy thing to do, let me tell you.

"After a while it got so that she knew when I was done training and would immediately run up and slobber all over me, and then bounce up and down at the gates so I could take her out. I loved that after a while- I could spend some time out of the compound without having any of my bending teachers breathing down my neck, and I could just spend it out in the cold with Naga, goofing off, throwing snow around, and generally having a good time. It was great- until she hit her final growth spurt.

"Remember how I told you that polar bear-dogs are really territorial and considered one of the most dangerous animals we've got out here? Well, when Naga grew up, that side came out- and it showed by her attacking one of the guards.

"We were out playing together and she tackled me at one point after I threw a bunch of snow at her. It was her normal thing to do and I didn't think anything of it- but we'd had a newer guard come in recently, and he didn't realize that. He thought I was being attacked, and he ran up to Naga with a spear. I just saw him coming and was able to yell for him to stop before he threw the spear, but it wasn't in time to stop Naga seeing him. And her instincts kicked in- she saw him as a threat. Before I could do anything, she'd jumped off me and leapt on top of the guard. If he hadn't been able to throw his arm up in time, she would probably have torn his throat out.

"I screamed at her to get off and jumped up to try and pull her away. She got off him long enough to shove me aside with one paw and turned back to the guard, snarling. I screamed for the other guards, since it looked like this poor guy's arm had been half-torn off, and earthbent a huge wall between him and Naga. Then I screamed at her to stop and stay down.

"She turned back to me, and I don't think I was ever so freaked out. I've never seen Naga look so scary- there was blood on her mouth, you know- and I honestly didn't know if she was going to attack me or not. I didn't think she'd hurt me, but I remembered how her mother had attacked me, and I realized only then that she'd been protecting Naga, as opposed to attacking me for the hell of it.

"I didn't move or look away from Naga, and after a few seconds she calmed down. She knew I was really angry at her, and I think she expected me to punish her in some way. I wanted to- but all I could think to say was that I was so sorry, for taking her mother away and then landing her in a place where everything her instincts told her to do was wrong. I did say sorry and I told her that she had to go away, that she had to go. I thought for sure Katara was going to kill me, but only after letting the White Lotus guards put Naga down. And believe me, they wanted to. By that point they'd gotten their friend to safety and were screaming at me to get away so they could take care of that 'monster.'

"I thought about running away again, just me and Naga. But that had gotten both of us into trouble in the first place, and I didn't want to make the same mistake twice. So I sent Naga to her hut and locked her up. I really think she realized then that she'd done something wrong- her head drooped and she whimpered. But she didn't try to jump the walls or go after anyone else, and I went back into the house to see how the guard was doing.

"Katara had seen to him as much as she was able- which was a lot, given how good she is at healing- and she'd stopped the bleeding and gotten him pretty well patched up. But his arm was in a splint and he looked terrified and mad as hell. I really couldn't have blamed him for wanting Naga put down or sent away, but all I could think was that I couldn't let that happen.

"So I tried to think about what to say. Finally I just told him that I was sorry. That it was my fault for not taking better care of Naga and that even though I knew how badly he was hurt, she wasn't in the habit of doing something like that. I promised that she wouldn't ever hurt him or any of the other guards again- and I think that was where my nervousness took over. I started jabbering about territorial polar bear-dogs and how they were snappish even at the best of times and though they weren't usually pets there were cases and that in those cases they were some of the best watch-dogs ever known to man… and then Katara finally shut me up.

" 'We aren't getting rid of Naga, Korra,' she said, and sounded really tired. 'This is my fault to begin with; I knew Naga was growing up and that this came with that time of life. Clearly that animal loves you too much to let anything happen to you and it would be a shame to lose that because of one mistake.'

"I stared at her and finally said, 'Look, I know you're trying to help, and I appreciate it. But I can't guarantee that Naga won't make another attack. She's growing up, like you said, and that is a dangerous time. I haven't trained her as well as I thought and I can't let her attack other people.'

"Katara nodded. 'You're growing up too,' she said. 'But Naga can't stay here, at least not until you can promise me that she won't attack anyone else. But you don't need to send her away. Just take your time and be careful with her when letting her be with others. I can help you build an igloo for Naga outside the compound, if you want.'

"And she did. It took almost a year, but Naga did prove that she could treat others well. And I spent so much time with her, I got a bit better at it too. Not much. But I stopped beating people into the ground when I won against them during bending practice. And I was able to blow off steam away from everyone else- and there was always Naga to listen."

* * *

"Wait, that's it?" Mako sat up on the step outside the house, where he and Korra had been sitting for the last words of her story.

She had been quiet for several seconds, looking at the white mass of fur lying at their feet with a rather sad smile. But at Mako's words she grinned. "Yeah, that's it. Sorry. There wasn't a whole lot to tell after that; I kept walking her, taking her to see other people, letting her know that they were friends and so on. There wasn't really any banner moment- she just caught on after a while and that was it.

Mako nodded. "It's not a bad story. I just guess I was expecting it to be a bit happier."

"It's not like it's an unhappy ending or anything," Korra pointed out. "Just a really rough few lessons. It's not like anything Aang had to deal with, nowhere near that scale. It was just kind of tough for a while. I guess I didn't tell it as well as I could have." Her face grew pensive. "It's not very easy to talk about, really. It wasn't till I came to Republic City and met you and your brother that I realized that that really wasn't a normal way to grow up. And I'm not very proud of how I acted during that time with Naga. I was just a bratty little kid- in a way that left a hell of a lot of damage."

For a moment they were both quiet. Then Mako's hand slipped into Korra's. "I don't think anyone who knows you would think that you left more damage than healing. What you've brought to the people here- to Lin and her men, for instance- is just one example. Bad memories- they have a way of leading to better times, I think."

Korra smiled. "You're turning sappier by the second. But I think you're right. Thanks." She leaned forward to give him a very slow and lingering kiss before standing. "Come on- I don't know about you, but my hands are getting numb, and I'm pretty sure I can smell tea and soup in there. Naga, go back to your hut, girl."

Naga jumped up and sprang up a few steps to give Korra a huge slobbering lick on the cheek before racing back across the courtyard. The girl watched her go with a smile. "Oh, girl. I don't know what I'd do without a big slobbering face to kiss my boyfriend with." She laughed at Mako's horrified expression before grabbing him by the hand and pulling him into the house. He closed the door behind them, leaving behind an empty courtyard sprinkled with the remains of freshly fallen snow.

* * *

**So there you have it :) **

**This was never meant to be a long story, though I am sorry about how long it took me between updates. It was hard to strike a balance with this ending because I didn't want Korra to become too mature, since she grew up for real during her time in Republic City. But I did want to show that even though she wasn't quite perfect, she had made progress, even if that progress didn't become apparent to her till much later.  
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**Thank you all so much for reading, reviewing, and favoriting! This was an interesting fic to write, since Korra has many layers as a character, all of which are fun to explore. I hope you all enjoyed this perspective on her!  
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